As someone who's spent a fair bit of time in that area, whose kids hike in that area and have quite a few friends in that area it's just a damn shame. I don't believe I know either of the victims, but it could just have easily been someone I know or my kids.
I won't speculate as to what happened and as someone who likes to hike in the Chugach solo when ever I can I'm not going to cast aspersions. It's practically the back yard of many of us. Sure some people run and hike in the mountains not aware of their surroundings, but IMHO that's the exception to the rule.
I will say it's long past time bears in the front range of the Chugach and in town are no longer treated as protected species. I don't think we should shoot all bears on sight, but IMHO enough of them need to be regularly shot so that the population at large has a healthy fear and respect of humans.
